Christmas evening, we got home from Nena and Papa's house. Stephen and I used to give the kids their presents from us at either Nena's or Grandad's house, but the kids recently started wanting us to open each other's presents at home because "it makes Christmas last longer."
Iris gave Nana a spoon "for serving her famous chicken and dumplins" :)
Iris gave her Daddy his favorite pens and a moleskine notebook, he has a strange obsession with them.
Iris gave me advent candles, because I've always wanted my own advent wreath :)
She made Lucy a "church doll." Lucy loves handmade cloth dolls. She learned from Mrs Edyne that they were called church dolls because little girls used to be allowed to take them to church since they wouldn't make noise if they were banged or dropped against pews or floors.
She gave Clyde a glow-in-the-dark hex bug. He was delighted.
Clyde gifted our budding chef with popsicle molds.
He gave Nana a Christmas decoration, it's her favorite holliday.
He gave Daddy some custom labeled giant kitkat bars.
Mommy got her favorite scents of antibacterial gels.
He gave his big sister her favorite antibacterial gel.
Lucy gave him a logic game. He has carried it everywhere!
She bought Iris a combo Ariel movie. Much desired and adored!
She gave Nana a big crossword book.
She handmade a memory shadow box for me and Daddy!! Very sweet.
Everyone got money from Nana!! Super excited kiddos!
I gave Stephen a giant maglight and some stuff for his arduino robot thingy.
But he went overboard a bit and gave me gift cards for Lowe's and Firebird's, my favorite lotion, and ring I liked from Kohl's. I was SOOO excited!!
This year we copied a cool idea that my friend, Amy, does with her family. To find a way to remind the kids of Christ at Christmas we gave them each 3 gifts. One represents gold, one represents frankincense, and the last represents myrrh. Their 'gold' is something they really want, their 'frankincense' is something they can share or do with others to also bring them joy, and finally their 'myrrh' is something that helps them grow spiritually.
I kinda, accidently, went a little over the top, though...didn't mean too, but sometimes I would forget I had already bought one kid something to represent something and then I would accidently buy something else representing that same thing, and then instead of returning it, I would just add to the other kids' gifts. (head-palm) *sigh* My poor husband.
ANYWAY.
Lucy's frankincense... more giant tinker construction..now they can build forts and ships that fill up the basement.
Clyde's myrrh....
Iris's myrrh...
Lucy's myrrh...
Clyde's frankincense...a really fun game.
Iris's frankincense... (it's hard to see, but it's a giftcard to take everyone to see a movie)
Lucy's gold... doll stuff.
Clyde's gold...legos.
Iris's gold... she's a shoe lover!
We were very blessed this Christmas. I remember Christmases when Stephen and I couldn't afford presents, but still the kids got some from everyone else and were very blessed and happy. I look at all these pictures from this post, the last one, and the one to come and realize that we really need to tone it down. Less is more, when it comes to character building and we never want them to lose sight of celebrating Christ as their ultimate gift. I get so excited when I get to give my kids gifts and always go more nuts than I need to... hopefully they still know what's important IN SPITE of their Mommy's craziness!! And I must say...we made some great family memories!!
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